The Light in the Piazza
by Difinity
Summary: He wanted to rush up and ask her if she was new to town, and take her everywhere. But this girl, how badly she made him feel, the dam seemed to be crumbling and he knew, one look from her crimeless eyes would have him drowning. One sided Cloud x Aerith.


A/N: AU. More or less. One sided Cloud x Aerith, Slight Zack x Aerith

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The Light in the Piazza

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A trail of flowers were scattered behind them as he held onto her hand tightly and ran ahead of her, pulling her into the little quiet mountain town. The excited young man laughed at his girlfriend's squeals. He looked back at her and saw that her face was flushed red, eyes flaring, intensifying their natural green color. Her hair was disheveled from running so much. He must've thought it a game and quite a comical one at that, she truly believed, otherwise he wouldn't have insisted on dragging her quite so far. Sure, she loved holding hands with her boyfriend but soon after increasing their pace and realizing that their destination was much farther than initially believed, she began to detest the strong grip that kept her running against her will.

Finally, he stopped. She however, kept going until she bumped into his back and yelped. Laughing, he turned around and cupped his girlfriend's face in his hands, giddy with happiness as he always was and kissed her forehead sweetly. She looked up at him, face still flushed and took a hold of his hands, tearing him away so she could have a moment to catch her breath. Her boyfriend stood back, placing his hands on his hips and looked at her comically as she placed her hands on her knees and breathed deep. He laughed.

The green eyed girl looked up angrily at him. She shook her head at him viciously and he cocked his head to the side, stuck out his lower lip in a pout and stepped forward to him. He reached out and pulled her into a tight hug; she squirmed in his grasp. But the tighter he held her, the more her anger began to dissipate and she soon relaxed in his arms and shut her eyes, breathing deep, taking in his scent and once again reveling in how lucky she was to have such a wonderful guy who cared so much about her. Her breathing began to regulate itself and she sighed in relief, glad that the sudden escapade was over and that they could relax.

Why he brought her here, she couldn't remember, but nevertheless, she was glad that he had taken her out of Midgar. Upon first hearing about it, she was incredibly excited. Soon after, however, fear began to envelope her. Leave Midgar? Emerge from under the plate? The slums? It had been so long. She believed her time for running was at last over, but now a new hand was leading her away from the darkness and into the sunlight. A hand that was just as warm but stronger. A hand that would caress her face and stroke her hair, that would brush her lips and intertwine with hers. A hand that belonged to someone who made her heart skip a beat so often at a time she swore there were times when she thought it stopped all together. Such were the warm, rushed feelings of a first love.

He pulled away slightly to look into her eyes before kissing her warmly and fully. She returned the kiss but ended it quickly for she hated public displays of affection. It was one of the few things that embarrassed her. He pouted but she shook her head and smiled at her boyfriend, pulling away from his embrace and took his hand, intertwining their fingers and tipping her head in the direction of the town. He kissed her hand and lead her slowly into town, the two lovers swinging their arms back and forth like innocent playmates skipping along the playground.

Reaching the inn, the young man turned around and bid his girlfriend to wait for him outside and enjoy strolling along the little town until he the busywork inside. He gave her hand a tight squeeze and upon letting go, gave her a little wave before disappearing inside the building. Watching the door close behind him, the green eyed girl turned around and twirled in place, reaching up into the sky and letting the sun warm her face. She was full of happiness as she breathed deep, letting the mountain air fill her lungs. How long had it been since she left Midgar! How often she had dreamed of being whisked away and set free, like a bird locked for so long in a tiny cage, now able to spread its wings and kiss the sky!

She didn't care if there might be people staring at her. It didn't matter. They weren't once trapped under the metal plate and now breathing the air not as someone on the run, but as someone who was free and embracing the planet.

The door shut on a home in the northeastern part of the city. A young man stood at the door, looking down at the floor until the sound of giggling traveled to his ears and he looked up to see a very pretty girl spinning in circles with her arms in the air. The sight greeted him as strange. A very, very, pretty girl, he realized, was in the middle of his town, twirling with delight as if the most wonderful thing in the world had happened. Her long hair, albeit tied in a braid, twirled around her and her eyes glittered brightly in the light of the sun. Her fair skin seemed to glow like a warm light; it looked soft and warm, silky if he were to ever touch it, he imagined. The apples of her cheeks were red like a fresh, ripe apple ready to be plucked from the tree. Looking at her from afar, she appeared as a porcelain doll come to life with the exception that she didn't have an eerie emptiness in her eyes. Her eyes, unlike the doll's the young man had compared her to, were full and absolutely pouring with life and happiness, so much of it he felt it would pool around his feel and almost wash over him like a wave leaping over the bounds of a lonely shore.

All at once, he wanted to run up to her and find out what was making her so happy. In his dreary little mountain town, in all the days of his life of looking at the world from his bedroom window, he had never seen anyone look so happy. Not the group of children who always played and laughed without him, even they never looked so happy in their moments of frolic. They, at best, looked joyful, but sometimes with a false happiness that he couldn't quite place most of the time. This girl, however, looked like she would be happy in whatever came. In the light of day, in the dark of night, in the sun, the rain, the snow, the chill of autumn, she looked like she could be happy anywhere.

She stopped and put her hands down, unaware of the young man watching her with his watchful gaze. She hugged herself and breathed deep, closing her eyes. The young man felt a chill climb up his spine. He wondered what her hands must've felt like. If what they looked like were any indication of it, they must've been soft and tender, as she herself appeared to be. Unwrapping her arms from herself, the girl bowed her head slightly and clasped her hands together. The young man watched her do so and suddenly stood up straight.

Praying.

She was praying in the daylight.

Here was how he felt he saw her at her truest element. Pure and beautiful, praying. The light dancing on her skin, the breeze toying with her hair. To him, among the sadness of the town, she looked so horribly out of place that he almost wanted her to leave. Someone so happy didn't belong in his sad little town. In his quiet little town. In his lonely little town. So, so, so beautiful, though, standing alone in the light. He realized, there was hardly ever any cheerful light in town and believed the sun followed the pretty girl into town. Once she leaves, he thought, so would the light, and the heavy clouds would settle once again overhead, lingering, hovering, booming all day. But this girl, she took light by the hand and strolled into town with it. As she stood and prayed, the light seemed to get brighter and brighter with every word that she must've conjured in her mind and sent off to the brightest parts of the sky.

Oh, not even the prettiest girl in town, the girl everyone treasured, and he himself secretly harbored tender feelings for, not even she could make the sun so bright. No, this girl was ten times brighter than she, a hundred times more beautiful and more coveted than her. A million times more pure and infinitely more lovely in the young man's eyes. His heart was pounding wildly in his chest. How he longed to walk over to her and say hello, or even just to be near her and prove she wasn't just a figment of his imagination, something bright waving in his vision of loneliness. Cruel it would be if she were not real. But she seemed so real! So beautifully real, so incredibly real that he wondered what her voice was like. What her full laugh sounded like, not just the soft, far off giggles he heard as he stepped outside.

Incredible and light. She raised her head. She did not smile. Instead, her face was serene, eyes pleading with the sky, pink lips slightly parted as she looked up at a God whose name he did not know, whose beliefs he wasn't aware of, of a voice he'd never heard echoing from the planet he lived in. No, he didn't not hear what she heard. The voices and cries deep within the planet. The life coursing through the land, he didn't know it flowed through her veins, that through her, she could control life, easily with a flick of her hand, reaching deep within the planet she unwittingly inherited. No, he didn't understand how special she was. Just as rare as he saw her light in his town, she was anywhere in the world. Oh, how he wanted to covet that light. Suddenly, the prettiest girl in town didn't exist anymore, suddenly she wasn't so pretty anymore because, oh, this girl!

This girl so pure and lovely. Oh, this girl! How heavy she made his heart weigh against his chest. Oh, this girl! This girl, this girl, this very, very pretty girl.

Her hands fell to her sides and she looked around, wide eyed and curious. He wanted to rush up and say hello, ask her if she was new to town, and take her everywhere. He wanted her to look into his eyes and not see a failure, not see someone weak and unwanted. He wanted her to take him into her circle of light and keep him safe. He wanted to belong. She looked like she would keep him. All of his raw, hidden, unwanted, terrorized, shredding feelings inside of him, he felt they too, like her happiness, were pouring out of his eyes, a sad pool of his own making swimming at his feet. But he couldn't voice them. Could hold in those feelings for as long as he had to. The dam in his heart forever holding them back. But this girl, how badly she made him feel, the dam seemed to be crumbling and he knew, one look from her crimeless eyes would have him drowning.

He stared at the floor in shame of himself, as if he had seen something he wasn't supposed to. Yet his eyes betrayed him--the light was too bright--and he looked up again to see her staring back at him. He felt his heart leap into his throat. Her eyes were inquisitive and so, so green. They jumped from her small face, like the embers of a flame popping from a roaring fire. She cocked her head to the side slightly, but smiled as she did so. He couldn't take it. He turned around in shame. Hid his face on the door of his home, pressed his forehead against the cool wood. Oh how his heart betrayed him so, screaming at him to turn around and glance once again upon what was not his. Look, look, look back at the light, how he wanted to. Just to see her again.

It was so strange, him acting this way, feeling this way. But how could he not when something so lovely was so near him? So bright in his dark little town.

He heard a door close and the sound of running footsteps. He caught his breath and turned around.

And suddenly the light was gone and the sky was cloudy and the wind was cold and lonely. He panicked and looked around, scampered forward to where the light had been and indeed it was gone. There was no light left in the tiny little city, in the awful little city, in the dank little city. All that remained were a trail of flowers that led out of town and he knew that his very, very pretty girl had gone. Had skipped merrily away to bring light to other places. Had left only flowers behind, bright, bright, beautiful flowers for him. A sign showing he wasn't so lonely in his sorry little town.

But oh! She smiled at him! Smiled at him and didn't look away, didn't hide, didn't scowl. She just smiled. Smiled like she would never stop, smiled as if she didn't, he would disappear, he felt. She helped him hold on just a little bit longer. Carried with her some of the weight from his shoulders, alleviated the pressure that was pressing against the dam in his heart. Alone now and with her gone, he could still feel the warmth from her light. Standing where she stood, he felt it wrap around him. Why this beautiful girl made him feel so vulnerable, he didn't know, but she did, and he loved her. Love, love, loved her more and more as he thought of her. Oh, his beautiful girl.

The prettiest girl in town stepped out of her home. She saw him. He saw her and still, he loved his girl more. More and more, he loved his girl more. Loved her and the light she brought. The happiness she brought. The love she brought. This girl he loved.

This girl, so wonderful and magical. Oh, this girl! How much he loved this girl. Oh, his girl! His girl, his girl, his very, very pretty girl.

Oh.

How he missed his girl now that she was gone.


End file.
